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By Eric HeylTRIBUNE-REVIEWFriday, March 23, 2007

A look ahead:

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 7, 2007 -- Thrilling races for Western Pennsylvania's most powerful elected offices were decided yesterday when both incumbents eked out narrow victories over their write-in opponents.

"This is an extremely gratifying victory," Onorato said. "For a trail of condensed water vapor formed in an aircraft's wake, my opponent ran a surprisingly effective campaign."

Ravenstahl initially denied being relieved by his 30-vote victory over the mannequin, saying, "I'm just happy now that we can concentrate exclusively on moving this city forward."

But the mayor held an impromptu news conference moments later, after WTAE-TV aired video of a heavily perspiring Ravenstahl telling a supporter: "The mannequin conceded? What a relief!"

Ravenstahl denied that his earlier statement was misleading.

"Perhaps I could have been more clear," he said.

"But when I said, 'What a relief,' I was not referring to my own personal relief over having barely survived a campaign against a clothing dummy. I was talking about a more general relief that we can now concentrate on moving the city forward."

As recently as late March, it appeared that Onorato and Ravenstahl would cruise easily to victory.

No Democrat or Republican could be persuaded to run against the powerful, popular and well-financed Onorato.

Ravenstahl's only opponent for the Democratic primary -- City Councilman Bill Peduto -- stunned supporters by abruptly dropping out of the race.

Peduto refused to capitalize on several instances in which Ravenstahl blatantly stretched the truth. The councilman said he couldn't bring himself to campaign negatively against the young mayor.

(Peduto's subsequent early summer announcement that he was giving up swimming after deciding he couldn't bring himself to get wet drew considerably less news media attention.)

With Republican candidates for mayor and chief executive proving to be as mythical as hobbits, Onorato and Ravenstahl were prepared to run half-hearted, lackadaisical campaigns entirely devoid of relevant discourse.

But concerns that the city and county governments were drifting perilously close to oligarchy prompted the formation of an informal citizens' group, which convinced the mannequin and vapor trail to launch write-in campaigns.

"We almost pulled it off," informal citizens group semi-official spokesman Leonard DeWitt-Fitshugh said. "We were successful in getting people to realize that even having a stupid choice was better than having no choice at all."

The vapor trail dissipated shortly after conceding to Onorato and was unavailable for comment.

A spokesman for the mannequin said it had not ruled out a future bid for office. For the time being, it planned to return to Macy's to model the Club Room clothing line for career-oriented, professional men.

Eric Heyl is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review staff writer. He can be reached at eheyl@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7857.